By Sean McMaster
Students for McCain
The third rail of politics"" is a common euphemism for Social Security. Despite not being a particularly overt issue of the current election, this is still a very volatile component of the current governing system per its euphemistic namesake.
Many on the UW campus will say that college tuition costs and LGBT rights are far more important in today's society, ceding that the issue of Social Security does not pertain to them. But I ask: In order to pay for your tuition and housing, do you hold a job? If you answered yes, you are among the approximately 24.4 million youths (ages 16 to 24) who are employed and ultimately affected by legislation on this topic.
For every dollar, 6.2 cents will get deducted from your paycheck solely to pay for the federal government's operation of Social Security.
The current system is broken and will pose increased problems as our generation enters full employment. As you may know, the rate at which people are retiring is greater than the rate at which people are entering the work force; therefore, there exists an increasing cost gap in running Social Security.
We all must ponder whether Social Security will even be there when our parents retire, let alone when we retire. Because, and this is a common misconception, the money that you are paying in now goes to the current recipients of Social Security. There is no magical pot of gold with your name on it ensuring that you will get back the money that you paid into the system.
In order to ensure for the comfortable retirement of future generations, it is necessary for at least a component of Social Security to be privatized, an effort which candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has vowed to stop. In fact, Obama's solution to this problem is to raise Social Security taxes.
Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the other hand, has consistently shown interest in the privatization of approximately 20 percent of Social Security because ""promoting investment in America by every American worker would give lower-income Americans the ownership they deserve in the country we share, as well as grow their Social Security more rapidly.""
This would guarantee that at least a portion of the money paid to the program by you returns to you upon retirement. In addition, because this fund is private, it can be inherited like any other investment. Thus, if you happen to pass away before you can claim your fund, this account will go to the beneficiary of your will.
However, the following question may be posed: In the current state of the economy, wouldn't my money be at risk?
This is a very valid question and, in short, the answer is that currently the plan for the privatized component of Social Security taxes will be invested in low-risk investments such as treasury bonds and certificates of deposit. Plans for privatization also ensure that by doing so ""no one's total Social Security benefits from the personal accounts will be less than if he had chosen to stay in the current system,"" according to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
I see only a benefit from this legislation. Wouldn't you have liked to start investing in your personal retirement fund on the first day of your first job? I know I would have.
This is another tidbit of information that you must consider when going to the polls on Nov. 4: Which candidate is looking to ensure your future and fix a broken system? It sounds like Sen. McCain to me.
Sean McMaster is a junior majoring in biochemistry and mathematics and is the co-treasurer of Students For McCain. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
